HISTORY NOW

NZ Truth, Issue 1173, 24 May 1928, Page 14

HISTORY NOW

Kia Toa Repeats The Do^e (Prom "N.Z. Truth's" Palmerston North Rep.) Once again have Kia Toa: and Palmerston North Old Boys met m combat on the. Rugby field, and once more have the honors gone to the .double blues. ; . ' COR the past few years, Kia Toa * have had the Indian sign on Old Boys and though, on paper, Old Boys have generally fielded a stronger team, Kia Toa, as a result of the tactics they have been able to bring into use, generally emerge at the winning end of the stick. Since the beginning of the 1925 season, these two fifteens have met on" 12 occasions, and twice only m that period have Old Boys been able to inflict defeat on their old rivals. Kia Toa have won 9 games and one has been drawn. Last week's game was eagerly looked forward to by the fans m the Mariawatu, with the majority favoring Old Boys as the likely winners. POSSIBILITIES SCOTCHED 1 The game could not be called a good exposition of the code. Faulty handling and passing by the Old Boys' backs and the fast breaking tactics adopted by the Kia Toa forwards, prevented the game developing into an ideal match, but the forward work displayed was of a high standard. The Kia Toa forwards were superior to the Old Boys vanguard, and usually had the better of the play. . \ ",; The first half ended without either side having 1 opened their account. Both sides had , Opportunities enough, but minor infringements enabled the defences to.be kept intact. ' It was well into the second half before Shapleski, who played a good, solid game at half, for Kia Toa, picked up from the ruck and dived over on the blind side for a try which Mullins easily converted. Old Boys redoubled their efforts and not long after, Palmer received from his inners and sped over m the corner, Akuira kicking a beautiful goal to make the scores even, It fell to Mullins to get the points which decided the flame m Kia Toa's favor, a penalty goal giving his side the all important lead, which Kia Toa held to the final whistle without any further increase. Kia Toa succeeded m making the game a forward battle. The Old Boys backs, on the other hand, made every endeavor to open up the the play, but without success. Wasley, Mullins, Strange and Shapleski were the pick of the Kia Toa backs, who were more m evidence m defence rather than m attack. Mullins had his kicking boots on, which was fortunate for Kia Toa, for five of their eight points came m this manner. McDonald, Summers, . Crawford, Heatley and Doherty all toiled hard m the frontal division. Old Boys' backs should have \ made a much better showing than they did, even though they were persistently troubled by the invasions of the opposing forwards. Evans, at the base of the scrum, gave some very bad passes to Akuira, who played soundly, if not -brilliantly, but Brophy had another off day with the result that Riddeft was starved for opportunities. . ; . WORTH A TRIAL? A change that would be at least worth trying, would be to bring Brophy out to- his old position at centre and to move Riddell m to fill the second five- eighths position. Palmer, on the wing, showed determination when he scored Old Boys' try, while Williamson, at full-back, was ever safe. . - , Neild, Tremewan, Galpin and Sutherland were the pick of the forwards. Athletic won their first game this season by snatching a last minute victory from Feilding Old Boys 9-8 (three unconverted tries to a I goal from a try, and a try. . The early stages of the game failed to produce anything but dull; uninteresting; rugby, but both teams brightened up' considerably m the second .half. ' A pleasing' feature df the game was the deadly tackling of the Feildihg Old Boy players, and some of the older j'Ugbyites would do well to watch these boys bringing Sown their man; • •Kells, who came m to the wingforward position, played an excellent game for Athletic and used his head when he scored the winning try. Robb was the pick of the backs. ■» For Feilding Old Boys Bramwell played soundly and initiated many movements which, unfortunately, lacked sufficient support. McLieod, \ full-back, was superior to his vis-a-vis, Fernley, who was slightly off color. • ; McKay and Tait shone out m the forwards. Woodville gave Feilding a fright m the first half of the game, which was decided at Feilding. . • , 1 Infusing plenty of dash into . their work, the blue forwards had Feilding guessing and led 3-0 at half time. They failed to keep up the pace, however, and m the second half, Feilding added 17 points, besides keeping their opponents at bay. . Gibbs again played well for Feilding, and sold the dummy nicely to Smythe when he scored. The Darragh, brothers -. and Kelly we.re also on form.' The veteran, Bowler, Lynch arid Pike, worked like trojans m the pack. Eades and McNicol m the forwards and Wade m the .backs were the pick of the team from over the ' Gorge.